Professor Mahmoud El-Kati

Recent Articles

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) approximately five million more voters, including Blacks, Latinos and Asians, went to the polls in the historic 2008 presidential election in which America’s first Black president was elected. However, with the rise in voter suppression laws across the country since 2008, approximately five million voters are expected to be affected, says the ACLU. This includes Blacks and other people of color, the elderly, students, the poor and the disabled. “I don’t think it was any accident that after 2008 we found these huge gains in Blacks and Latinos in voting, as well as Asian Americans and Native Americans voting, then all of a sudden all these Republican-held [state] legislatures decided that voter fraud is a problem,” notes University of Minnesota Journalism Professor Catherine Squires. Continue Reading →

In last week’s story, one former and two current faculty members questioned Minneapolis Community & Technical College’s commitment to creating a diverse faculty. What may contribute to a lack of confidence in the college’s efforts is that while these and other concerned faculty members envision a faculty that reflects their student body, the college’s administration, under criteria set by the overall Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system, has no obligation to create such an environment. Diana Cusick is director of legal affairs for MCTC. In that capacity, she oversees the school’s Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity goals. All MnSCU colleges and universities are required to submit Affirmative Action plans every two years using State documentation that divides the Minnesota workforce into Affirmative Action categories. Continue Reading →